I’ve tried quite a few different NTFS drivers for Snow Leopard and I really like Paragon NTFS.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

I really like small screen-capture tools. I’ve been uing Jing for a long time. And on my Windows computers I’m using Greenshot.

The problem is that Greenshot does not exist in a Mac build.

So after the numerous different applications I’ve tried, Snag It is the winner on the Mac.  It’s simple, clean and gets the job done quickly.

I have to mention that I was using Skitch for some time. But it kept crashing and it didn’t play well with Spaces. Also I hated the fact that it stored all of my screenshots online, without even asking!

I use Divvy all the time on my Mac. It is a fantastic little application that helps you manage your windows.

A must on every Mac!

So what’s the deal?

Managing windows on Mac OS X can be frustrating, requiring precision control of your mouse or trackpad for clicking, dragging, pushing and pulling your windows to the size and position you desire. Even with all this work, it’s very difficult to get windows exactly where you want them, so most of the time windows are left scattered all over the screen. The solution? Divvy.

Divvy is an entirely new way of managing your workspace. It allows you to quickly and efficiently “divvy up” your screen into exact portions.

With Divvy, it’s as simple as a single click and drag in the Divvy interface and your window will be resized and moved to a relative portion of the screen. If that seems like too much work, you can go ahead and create as many different shortcuts as you’d like that resize and move your windows.

Divvy is designed to be quick, simple and elegant. We want it to stay out of your way as much as possible while providing the most powerful window management available today.

Divvy · Window management at its finest..

On my MacBook I work as natively as possible in MacOS X. However, living in a Windows server world affects my setup. I work a lot in a Remote Desktop Windows to various Windows systems.

In my search for the ultimate Remote Desktop Client for Mac I have found myself using CoRD pretty much all of the time. It’s not perfect but, in my opinion, light-years ahead of the Microsoft version.

CoRD is a Mac OS X remote desktop client for Microsoft Windows computers using the RDP protocol. It’s easy to use, fast, and free for anyone to use or modify.

Macs interact well with Windows, and with CoRD the experience is a bit smoother. Great for working on the office terminal server, administrating servers or any other time you’d like your PC to be a bit closer without leaving your Mac. CoRD allows you to view each session in its own window, or save space with all sessions in one window. Scale session windows to whatever size fits you—the screen is resized automatically. Enter full screen mode and feel like you’re actually at the computer. The clipboard is automatically synchronized between CoRD and the server. For system administrators, CoRD creates a simpler workflow by allowing you to save server information, then quickly connect to that server by using HotKeys or the server drawer. This makes quickly connecting to a specific server easy, even when managing many servers.

http://cord.sourceforge.net/

One of the best things with Windows is the ability to quickly lock your computer with the Win+L. Really nice if you have to leave your computer unattended.

The mac lacks this feature out of the box.

But you can mimic this with a small pref.pane called LockTight. I have been using is for a long time and I can really recommend it.

When people “Switch” to the Mac, they often look for a one-keystroke or one-key-combo screen locker.

And they’re often disappointed to find that the operating system only provides a two-click solution: add the Keychain Access menu item to the menubar, and then use “Lock Screen”.

So in came Menno Pieters, who built LockTight from Raging Menace‘s SleepTight code.

…but it doesn’t work under Mac OS X for Intel-based hardware. Until now…because I got frustrated with myself for not having done it earlier…

Presenting the Intel-compatible re-compile of LockTight.

Menno’s source code has been recompiled with XCode on an Intel based Macintosh, and contains all the original source code and licensing information as required.

Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6.x) Update (31 August 2009): LockTight for Intel (v0.1.1)

I’m the kind of person that keeps glancing at the system clock in the upper right corner all the time. This can get pretty frustrating sometimes.

Fuzzy Clock replaces the standard clock with the current time spelled out.

Often you don’t need the exact time in hours, minutes and seconds. A more human readable style like “five past ten” makes more sense. For that, you can now use FuzzyClock. FuzzyClock is a menubar clock which displays the current time in a “fuzzy” style.

I like it.

A few weeks ago I got tired of the fact that my power supply got unplugged by accident. Resulting in my MacBook running out of power while I’m at my desk, and me not having a MacBook with juice on the commute home from work.

Enter Hardware Growler.

A very neat little add-on to Growl that notifies you of changes to your hardware. For example if you plug in a USB thumb-drive or disconnect your power supply, you get a small Growl message.

Installation

Start out by downloading Growl.

Copy HardwareGrowler (from here on it will be called HG) from the disk image to either /Applications or /Applications/Utilities (The exact location doesn’t matter, so putting it in Utilities might make it more out of the way).
Go ahead and open up HG. You’ll notice that the application resides in the dock, but the application doesn’t provide very many menus. The only one of any significance is HG -> Preferences. The only is option available is to have Hardware Growler show connected devices when it opens. Make your choice, then quit HG.

Disabling the dock icon:

Because HG doesn’t really have any user-interaction features, you may follow these steps to disable the dock icon. Navigate to wherever you placed HG and right-click on it and select “Show Package Contents.” Open up contents and then right-click Info.plist. Highlight “Open With” and select TextEdit from the list (If TextEdit is not in the list, choose “Other…” and navigate to TextEdit and click “Open”).
Paste the following just after <dict>:

<key>LSUIElement</key>
   <true/> 

Then save and exit the file. You can go ahead and close the “Contents” window now; you shouldn’t be needing it any more. Now open up Terminal and type “touch ” and drag the HG into Terminal and then hit enter. HG should now be set up to not appear in the dock.

Setting HG to open on login:

The following steps are for 10.4 (Tiger) users, but the general idea behind them should be 100% sound for any version.
Open up Systems Preferences and select the Accounts pane. Then click the “Login Items” tab and drag the HG icon into the list. That’s it, you’re done!

Simple and great!

Links

• http://growl.info
• http://growl.info/documentation/hardwaregrowler.php

Jumpcut is a very small and sleek application that keeps a buffer of your recent clipboard on your mac. I use it all the time on my mac.

About

Jumpcut is an application that provides “clipboard buffering” — that is, access to text that you’ve cut or copied, even if you’ve subsequently cut or copied something else. The goal of Jumpcut’s interface is to provide quick, natural, intuitive access to your clipboard’s history.

Using Jumpcut

Jumpcut is designed to be simple. Download the application, double-click the .tgz file to open it, and drag the application (the one with the pretty scissors icon) to your Applications directory. Launch Jumpcut. A scissors icon will appear in your menu bar. Now whenever you cut or copy a text item, it’ll be added to the “stack” of clippings that Jumpcut has recorded. Clippings can be accessed in one of two ways:

• Under the menu bar
  Choose a clipping from the Jumpcut menu.
• Through a pop-up bezel
  In any application into which you want to paste an item from Jumpcut’s stack, press the hotkey to activate Jumpcut’s bezel. (The default value for this hotkey is Control-Option-V.) A little window like the one you see when using the application switcher or the brightness controls will appear. While holding the modifier keys (for the default hotkey, this is the Control-Option combo), use the arrow keys to scroll through the stack.

When you’ve selected a clipping, Jumpcut will put it on the pasteboard and attempt to paste it into your application. It does this by mimicking a user typing Command-V, so unusual applications which don’t use this to indicate “Paste” will be confused. The clip will still be on the pasteboard, though, so you can paste it normally. If Command-V is used in a non-standard way in applications you are trying to paste to, a preference is available to disable the “paste” action for clippings selected from the menu bar. In this case, choose the clipping and paste however your application asks you to do it.

I’ve tried to allow a few different methods for navigating in the bezel. You can move down the stack using the right arrow, down arrow, or “V” key; you can move up the stack using the left arrow, up arrow, or “Shift-V”. Home moves to the beginning, and End moves to the end. Page Up and Page Down scroll through the stack more quickly. If you change your mind and decide not to paste the application, hit escape to make the bezel vanish. A “sticky bezel” preference is available; if it’s selected, you must explicitly hit return or escape to dismiss the bezel.

Jumpcut remembers the last clipping you selected using the bezel. The next time you bring the bezel up, it will start with that clipping unless it’s scrolled off the stack.

Download: http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/

I have been using Textexpander on my mac for over 2 years. Textexpander enables you to write custom snippets of text that gets inserted every time you type the abbreviation that’s linked to the snippet. Sounds complicated? It’s not..

Save time and effort with TextExpander! Whether it’s a simple email signature or several paragraphs of a standard response, you’ll love how easy it is to use TextExpander to avoid typing the same thing over and over.

Personally I’ve been using Textexpander for small stuff. For example every time i write the abbreviation ddate it gets substituted with todays date, formatted just the way I like it. The same thing for my signature when i write ssign. My use is somewhat trivial, but you can create quite cool custom snippets that for example will type a custom response to an email.

I have recently started using Textexpander on my iPhone and iPad. Works great.

Links

• http://smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/
• http://smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/screencast